show ankle
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.96 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest.
Example Sentences
- ""He figures that to do so, he'll have to be able to show a little ankle, to give some idea of new positions the United States is prepared to take.""
- "No one expects Cuomo to declare his candidacy tonight But Carduff said "we expect him to show some ankle"."
- "Microsoft showed some ankle and then some with advanced tools, database and server features in the latest builds of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006."
- "Now, it seems, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is ready to show a little ankle by welcoming a proposal from Lord Forsyth's tax commission to abolish stamp duty on shares."
- "Sneijder showed some ankle last week with a veiled ‘come and get me’ plea that was promptly rebuffed by David Gill stating that the deal probably won’t go ahead now."
Etymology
Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that.